A recent study found that while the UK plans to rapidly scale up its renewable energy infrastructure in the coming years, manufacturers may struggle to move away from production processes that are traditionally led by fossil fuels.
Nevertheless, Make UK said its members “overwhelmingly” believe they can achieve net zero by 2050 as long as they have enough support.
Many have already committed to reduce the direct emissions generated by manufacturing processes (scope 1) and indirect emissions from purchased energy (scope 2) by 67 per cent by the end of this decade.
Some have also committed to support their suppliers and customers to achieve net zero, an area that is likely to constitute the bulk of the emissions for the sector overall. For example, in automotive manufacturing, this would take into account not just the carbon impact of producing the product, but also the carbon used by the customer fuelling the vehicle over its lifetime.
Make UK’s latest...